My Street Films. Your Street, Your Film!

Founded in 2011 in London, the unique documentary project My Street Films finds its way outside the UK for the first time. Having struck all of London, the film fever has come to the streets of Prague in the middle of May 2014. “My Street is a kind of citizen journalism,” says founder of the project and director of Open City Docs FestMichael Stewart. “It is all about exploring the boundaries of documentary, which are shifting all the time.”

My Street Films is a new project of the DAFilms.com online documentary portal. It invites members of the general public to make their own short video of a street or place they know well from their personal, professional or study life.

What are the invisible stories of people we meet in “our“ street every day? What is the rhythm of a place we always hurry through, without ever stopping for a while? What secrets do the silent observers of the city; buildings, parks, forgotten secluded places; keep away from us?

My Street Films is initiated in collaboration with UK documentary festival Open City Docs Fest. This is where the challenge to explore both known and unknown streets through the film medium started, now going abroad for the first time via the DAFilms.com portal. The Czech version of the project enriches the British concept with a new unique element, consisting in the patronage and active participation of 5 leading local documentary filmmakers. Who are they? Read more on the project website!

Participation in My Street Films is open to anyone. The project welcomes observational films, experimental films, portraits and any other film forms that accentuate creative expression. Together, these films will create a unique map of the Czech Republic; a map of stories yet untold by the film camera.

A finished film or a film subject can be submitted to the competition. In case of the former, those interested can submit a short documentary with a maximum length of 10 minutes via a form on the project website. The latter possibility consists in submitting a film subject in the form of a short text up to 300 words by Sunday, June 8, 2014. The authors of the most interesting texts will make their films with the support of participating film professionals.

In the course of September, the best documentaries of all the films submitted by September 7, 2014 will be selected. The future winner of the main prize will have a chance to personally introduce his or her film at the UK festival Open City Docs Fest in June 2015. The other selected filmmakers will be personally invited to the screening of their documentaries at Jihlava IDFF in October 2014 and receive a one-year unlimited access to the film catalogue of DAFilms.com portal.

“Every street has its story. But not every street has its film...”

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For 3.99 euro, you can get a selection of documentaries that entered Czech cinematic distribution in 2016 as well as access to another 1500 films from around the world. Dear friends, please, do not forget that you can give an ideal present not only to your intellectual friends but also to yourselves.

The 33rd edition of FAMUFEST, a competition display of films made by students of Prague’s FAMU, will be held on November 23 to 27 at Prague’s Letná District. Like in the past year, it will take place at Bio Oko, plus at the new venues of Studio Hrdinů and Café Jedna.